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Christian Living

bootsontheground 08/17/10

Working themselves out of a job?

Afghan president Hamid Karzai today issued a decree calling for the disbanding of all national and international private security contracts in his country within the next four months.

This announcement is political haymaking on the heels of the accident last week where Afghan civilians were killed in a crash with US vehicles carrying contractors.  So Karzai is playing to his constituency.  But does he really want the contractors to leave?

For years, there have been far more contractors in Afghanistan than American troops.  Many are not of the "private security" stripe - contractors carry out all sorts of duties in the country, from construction to training the police forces.  Karzai apparently wants his police and military to take over the security in Afghanistan, but at the moment, that's a scary proposition.  Without the contractors that train these troops, you'll have little more than bands of heavily armed, state-sanctioned thugs running security around the country. 

The decree is also tantamount to asking all foreign aid workers to leave the country, as these must also employ private security contractors to keep their people alive as they try to bring relief and development to the region.  Pulling out all the contractors is a recipe for disaster.

My prediction:  like all politicians, Karzai talks a big game but will bow to reality when it comes knocking.
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